Neil O'Fortune and Clams Casino co-produce and co-host the Smells Like Tease Spirit! a 90s Burlesque Tribute tonight at Galapagos Art Space. Clams Casino is a burlesque performer, producer and writer who you can find entertaining anywhere from the Coney Island boardwalk to The Slipper Room. Together her and partner Neil O'Fortune have created a bevy of Burlesque shows for New Yorkers, as well as some non-Burlesque fun like the monthly, live-on-stage game show, What's My Line? which is held at the Parkside Lounge. Check out the duo in action tonight at their joint homage to grunge and burlesque.
Photo by Erika Nusser
How did you get into the burlesque scene?
Clams: We were going to shows on a regular basis and after a while I found myself coming up with ideas for acts...but I'm really shy in real life, so I didn't think it was something I'd ever do. Just for fun, I took a class with Jo Boobs, who put me in her show, Paperback Burlesque at the Cutting Room...and I've been hooked ever since.
Neil: I was a happy audience member and costume-carrier, and then I began volunteering with the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas; as we both became more involved with the community of performers in New York we realized that we had a lot of projects we wanted to work on together.
Is there a large burlesque scene in New York?
Neil: It's probably the largest in the country! Just about any night of the week you can see shows in dozens of venues with a huge range of performers with all kinds of distinctive styles. The greatest thing about NYC burlesque, in any show you might see a classic fan dance, followed by a really comedic number to a rock song, then something genuinely avant garde, performance art-inspired.
Clams: And it's growing every day. That's what makes it so exciting to be producing burlesque shows in New York right now.
What can a burlesque audience newbie expect at one of your shows?
Clams: They can expect the funniest, smartest, sexiest performers in the city, of course! Every show we produce has a theme...and this one is going to be a lot of premature nostalgia for the music, tv and pop culture from our teens.
Neil: And our twenties...for some of us. If they've never seen a burlesque show, period, they should expect to be an important part of the show. The performers feed off the crowd's energy, so everybody should be ready to hoot and holler when they see something they like. And you should expect a fun, diverse crowd, men and women, gay and straight. Classic striptease mixed with lots of humor, some of it raunchy, some of it just silly. Basically, a great way to spend a Monday night.
Where did the idea for Smells Like Tease Spirit come from?
Clams: So...I turned 16 in 1994, and my memories of high school are defined by the music I loved, like Liz Phair and The Breeders are some of my favorites. As a pop culture junkie and lover of completely ridiculous, over the top nostalgia...I felt it was my responsibility to bring the 90s to the burlesque stage.
Neil: There had been shows dedicated to the 70s and the 80s, but we thought it was time to get in on the leading edge of the 90s nostalgia boom. The running joke for us has been that we're running out of past, and we wanted to have fun with that idea. As soon as we had the concept, we thought of a bunch of performers who have acts with 90s music...and some performers we knew would be inspired to do something great with this theme. So we have this fantastic lineup: Delirium Tremens, Honi Harlow, Nasty Canasta, Precious Little, Roja Rouge and Tigger!, and a lot of numbers that have never been seen before, which is exciting.
What is the strangest thing that has happened to you while performing?
Clams: Well, last summer in the Pinchbottom Burlesque show at Coney Island, I was performing as a giant box of fried clams, an homage to boardwalk food. So, while doing my number I became completely entangled in my costume. At a certain point in the act, it just became about, "will I triumph over this box?" I'm happy to say that I did.
Neil: She pulled it off, though. No pun intended.
Please share your favorite "only in New York" story.
Neil: To be honest, for me the beauty of living in this city is that you can have that moment every day! Just thinking about it, I remember having that thought last spring seeing a big group of Buddhist monks all buying ice cream in front of the Museum of Natural History.
Clams: Or watching a rabbi swing on the monkey bars at a playground, while we were waiting for the bus. Or, seeing Heatherette in the audience at a Dolly Parton concert!
Which New Yorker do you most admire?
Clams: Arlene Francis. Charles Nelson Reilly. And the dudes who run the Apple Store at 4 in the morning.
Neil: Yeah, the people whose names I don't know that make the city run like it's supposed to. The guy who cheerfully sells me my coffee in the dead of winter, on the street corner at 8 am. The people on the line at 311 who actually find an answer to my ridiculous question.
Given the opportunity, how would you change New York?
Clams: Stop building condos! Stop closing performance spaces!
Neil: Stop closing down old family businesses to put in bank branches. Stop making the city too expensive and too resistant to the artists, the performers, the creators that make the city what it is. Stop thinking of progress only as building oversized, overpriced glass towers.
Clams: And leave Astroland alone, too.
Under what circumstance have you thought about leaving New York?
Neil: Never.
Clams: When we moved to the city from Ohio, 7 years ago, we realized that there was no other place we could both do the things we love in one city--with the added bonus of not having to own a car.
What's your idea of a perfect day of recreation in New York?
Clams: Reading the Sunday Times, brunch and bloody marys with my girl friends at Good Enough to Eat. Play some tennis in Ft. Greene Park.
Neil: Pick a Museum I haven't been to, or one I haven't been to for a long time, and wile away the afternoon. End the evening down at the Slipper Room, watching our friends perform, drinks backstage 'til the place closes.
Do you have a favorite New York celebrity sighting or encounter?
Neil: We produce a monthly live game show called "What's My Line?" and every month I invite a celebrity mystery guest to come play the game. We've had a wide range of fabulous guests and our latest guest is always my favorite…just a few: Martha Plimpton, Zach Galifianakis, and Randy Jones, the original cowboy from the Village People. Randy
received a cellphone call from Janice Dickinson while on stage with us.
Clams: And there was that one time, at a party on the Upper West Side. I interrupted a conversation with Mike Nichols to slip my card to Elvis Costello (my total hero).
What's your current soundtrack to the city?
Clams: My iPod provides constant inspiration. It mostly consists of Elvis Costello, Van Halen and Neko Case.
Neil: Isn't it amazing how the iPod can read your mind? Honestly, mine frequently picks the perfect song for whatever I'm doing at that moment. Might be old-school Soul, might be Queen, might be Johnny Cash. I'm not the only one who experiences that, right?
Favorite headlines: NY Post or Daily News?
Clams: I'm not proud...the Post.
Neil: I have to say the Daily News because I can't bring myself to vote for the Post in any respect.
Best cheap eat in the city.
Clams: it's not the cheapest in the City, but Two Boots reminds me the most of the pizza I loved growing up in Ohio. For cheap whiskey: the Grassroots on St. Mark's.
Neil: Trader Joe's! Honestly, if we go out to eat it's usually because we feel like splurging. Yeah, if the question was best cheap beer, I've got a list.
Best venue to see a performance.
Collective: Unconscious, Rififi, for as long as it's still with us, the Living Room Lounge, Galapagos of course! And when it opens next month, the best new place will be the Fortune Cookie Cabaret at Lucky Cheng's!
